Mein Land

I take it to be very much about immigration. There's a really strong vaguely nationalist anti-immigration movement through much of Europe at the moment and I think the song intends to parody the attitude. It's "Mein Land" as opposed to the immigrants' land, because there are people who believe they have a right to live somewhere and that immigrants do not, because the immigrants haven't been there as long.

It's a little early to be alluding to the current wave of success such attitudes are having, but things like Pim Fortuyn List have been popping up for a while. No question there's more to it, but I think its intended most obvious interpretation was a parody of nationalistic and territorial attitudes. And I think that's a pretty general theme. The recent "banking crisis" has made for a pretty great atmosphere for nationalist and anti-immigrant crap to thrive - that's true in Germany as much as elsewhere. The divisions between East and West, and between Catholic and Protestant Germany may well have played a role too, but Germany has its own issues regarding immigration, which shouldn't be disregarded. The millions of children of the Gastarbeiter (guest workers) of the 50s, 60s and 70s still attract a huge amount of controversy in some circles, for example the Turks (around 4-5% of the German population), many of whom are said to be unwilling to integrate. That despite the fact that Germany's government has made a VERY conscious effort since 1945 to ensure that children growing up in Germany understand very well what's wrong with scapegoating and being intolerant of specific ethnic groups (a.k.a racism).

So absolutely I think it's about immigration - nothing to do with "those damn immigrants", but rather "those silly nationalists" - and it's done in a slightly silly tongue-in-cheek style very much typical of Rammstein. Opposition to immigration is very much an international issue - not at all limited to the US, sadly - and I think the primary focus of the song is mocking those who think they can claim sole ownership of an area of land. America's a great example, since the folks complaining about Hispanic immigrants are guaranteed to be descended from people who came over within the last 600 years or so, and spent the next 3-400 years gradually killing off and "civilising" the actual natives.

Doesn't appear to me like a song about illegal immigration.

Well, the text is about someone who wanders around and he's got no home because none wants him to live in his country as they claim it to be "their country" and don't want anyone else in.

Probably a song about exaggerated nationalism. Its criticism might refer to the United States (considering that the video was shot in a rather "American" sytle and that the USA is well known for its beaches that the song refers to), which used to be based on immigration but don't want anyone else to integrate anymore although that was what made them strong. Quite the opposite of the first post thus, as Rammstein is actually a leftist band.

I totally agree with roisindubh5 and Metoecen. I think the exaggerated panic in Till's voice when he sings: "Da komm'n sie angerrant, mit den Fahnen in der Hand/There they come running with their flags in their hands" just shows how ridiculous he thinks it is if people are afraid that immigrants will take over their country.

I do not believe that immigration--illegal or otherwise--is an aspect of Mein Land. The choice of directions seems to be intended to de-politicize them. Politically we talk about opposite directions: east vs. west, north vs. south. The directions in the song are first east to south, south to west, west to north, then north to east, east to west. This is not the wording a lyricist would use to express the divisive politics of immigration rhetoric.

Furthermore, as stated by others Rammstein is politically left-leaning. All 6 members grew up in East Germany before the wall came down. They have made their views on a variety of issues explicitly clear in many songs. Rammstein's second album cover was created by an artist hated by European neo-nazis for a series of massive art installations humanizing victims of the holocaust. Mann Gegen Mann calls for straight men to tolerate their homosexual brethren. Links-2-3-4 is saying "they want my heart to beat right, but when I look inside I find it beats left!" though that has many levels of meaning and also applies to the critics who want to see them as nationalists to that they can be comfortably pilloried as well.

They are also an extremely international band. They don't just sit in Germany making music for Germans, they have large fan bases worldwide, including in nations that have had historical tension with Germany such as France and Russia. Their live shows are a huge part of who they are as a band and have earned them recognition as having the best live show of any metal band in the world. They are very popular in Latin America and have said in interviews that their Mexican fans sing their lyrics louder than their fans in Germany do.

You simply cannot run a Rammstein song through Google Translate and think you understand what it is about. Many of their songs are simply impossible to translate into English because there are layers of cultural idioms, and homophones or other plays on words that work in German that just don't work at all in English. Most of their songs do not have a simple meaning in any language. Also the printed lyrics only carry a portion of the story because many Rammstein songs have lyrics that are the same or similar throughout the song but where the meaning changes due to slight changes in the wording or the way the song is sung. I think there are at least 3 and maybe four layers in Mein Land.

Initially the meaning of Mein Land seems very personal. Rammstein tours around the entire world. A lot. Every tour is a world tour on a level that no U.S. band does. So these guys spend a lot of time as foreigners in different places, going through customs in various nations etc. Probably getting asked a lot of questions like "Where are you going? Where?" and giving some trite answer like "I'm going alone from land to land." Note that the question sounds like a chorus by the band, while the answer is given by Till alone, suggesting "they ask this, I answer that." And since they sing in German many people worldwide see them as expressing German nationalism, metaphorically coming with their flag in their hands. And those people say offensive things like "You are here in my land! This is my land!"

Second, if you watch the video, in the beginning Rammstein doing a video that is nothing like any other Rammstein video except their first one. Of that video they have said basically, "we wanted to do video and didn't know how to do it so we let people who knew how to do videos do it and it sucked so we stopped doing that and do things our way now." So this is not an expression of their style, it is presenting a satirical representation of social conservatism. The text at the beginning presents this part of the video as being set in 1964. This part of the video has a very vanilla theme based on an American cultural period recognized globally as being repressively conservative. This is taking their personal observation and expressing it in a more global context.

In the end when the sun goes down, the text presents the setting as 2012 and the video turns into what one review calls "a carnal circus" with even more fire than usual for a Rammstein video and the band members in "Crow" like mime face paint smudged in a manner reminiscent of Ledger's Joker. One of the things Rammstein does in many of their songs is use the same lyrics in different contexts to mean very different things. In this case, the tactic is given away by the transition where Till screams the lyrics and beats his chest as he says "You are here in my land, My waves and my shore! Yeaaaah!!!" right before the switch to the "carnal circus" part of the video. During this sequence the lyrics are voiced in a much more aggressive fashion than in the first part and this seems to be saying that even if the nation is your land, when you come to their show you are on their ground now, and it is their land.

A fourth layer is suggested by the later choruses. In one the words are stated as coming from the sky, or from heaven, and in the final chorus the lyrics express a deep sense of alienation. This suggests that they feel they are no longer citizens of their land, but of the world. And they can no longer relate to the parochialism of the people in the lands they visit, even their own.

First, Rammstein is a very liberal band, if this was about illegal immigration it would be tongue in cheek and not anti-immigration. Second, they're German, not American. This is the new single for their Made in Germany album, if they're making a political statement it's not about immigrants coming into America unless, as I said, it's tongue in cheek.

The lyrics above aren't entirely correcht. At the end this verse is missing:

Mein land - vertrieben Mein land - vertreiben Mein land - vergessen Nirgends kann ich bleiben

in english: my country - expelled! (in the meaning of: i was expelled) my country - banish him! (in the meaning of: they are banishimg me - in german this is not a transitive verb) my country - forgotten! I can stay nowhere

I think the meaning of this lyric is quite obvious now - Rammstein loves to give you a first impression ("mein land" seems to be very nationalistic) that turns out to be completely wrong. Perhaps we should forget about our concepts of "countries" and regards ourselves as human beings...

First, I love how everyone in North America thinks that songs from other countries are singing about their idiotic political situations. More realistically, they are NOT singing about Mexicans jumping over rivers into the U.S., but Germany being cut up, EAST Germany, WEST Germany, Catholic SOUTH Germany and Protestant NORTH Germany, all of whom have their own view of seeing how Germany should be. Why would Rammstein even bother singing about our stupid border garbage in the U.S., they all ready said what they thought about it in Amerika. I

I think this more of a commentary of powerful countries (NATO) going around all over the globe starting wars for resources and military bases. saying this is "my sphere of influence" or whatever. They run from East to west, North to South claiming this even though not a single country invited them. And then they stay there and parade around "western values" which appear to others more like gluttony; greed, overindulgence in wanton desire etc. which they are able to enjoy after destroying people in these lands they forcefully occupy.

Add to that the fact that when NATO wages wars in these countries (which also include drug wars in latin america or kill squads in meso america) and people flee from their countries to seek refuge; the people in the warmongering countries scream "My land ", refuse them entry; and leave them homeless. NATO claims their own country and that of others as their own. The refugees get banished from their own homes in a way and from any home. the world forgets About their suffering and continues enjoying the excesses gained from their land.

What happens when decades of this is more than enough for people and they finally take back their land and self determination while occupiers keep screaming "my land ". Remember the Iraqis pelting stones and saying no one asked You to come fight for our freedoms. seeing this in content of African countries like Mali and Burkina Faso kicking our NATO Occupation forces recently it makes sense. Also see it in the light of that stupid hold in Rwanda law of UK. And we all know about American immigration always being trash. Also see this in context of dedollarisation going on in the world r.n. So NATO now gets banished; kicking and screaming; does a lot of destruction in the process but eventually the world moves on and forgets about them.

Snooty Euro's attempting to be outrageous. Awful song, interesting video.

It's clearly a song about illegal immigration. I see "Da komm'n sie angerrant, mit den Fahnen in der Hand/There they come running with their flags in their hands" as Mexicans jumping the border into America then expecting everyone to speak Spanish. As if they're running into our country with their flags in their hands.